The invention relates to a method of manufacturing a plurality of thin-film, surface-mountable, electronic components. Examples of such components include resistors, capacitors, inductors and fuses, but also passive networks, such as RC and LCR networks.
Such a method is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,199, which relates specifically to the manufacture of a plurality of thin-film capacitors. The method therein described employs a glass plate as a substrate. Using masking techniques, an orthogonal matrix of discrete, thin-film electrode structures is provided on a major surface of this plate, with the aid of a sputtering or evaporation procedure, for example. Each such electrode structure comprises a bottom and top electrode layer, which are separated by an interposed insulator layer, the electrode layers being offset in such a manner that they only partially overlap one another. After provision of the electrode structures, the plate is cut into strips, each such strip carrying a linear array of electrode structures. Each strip is cut in such a manner that the bottom electrodes all terminate at a first long edge of the strip, but not at the oppositely situated second long edge, whereas the top electrodes all terminate at the second long edge of the strip, but not at the oppositely situated first long edge. Each strip is then provided with an electrical contact along its first and second long edges, using a technique such as sputter-coating. Once these contacts have been provided, the strip is cut into individual block-shaped components, each comprising an electrode structure and two electrical contacts.
The method described above has a serious disadvantage, in that the plate must be cut into strips before the electrical contacts can be provided. This is undesirable, because it means that the manufacturing process cannot be completed at plate level (being the most efficient and economic mass-production scenario), and must instead be completed on a relatively piecemeal basis using sub-units of the original substrate plate (which is more time consuming, and therefore expensive).